Family

One Of Our Family Traditions

Once upon a time, we used to take random pictures during the holidays. I mainly wanted pictures to use on our Christmas cards. It wasn’t until about 3 years ago I realized that I didn’t want the headache of trying to get everyone together for ME to be the one to take our family pictures. Honestly, because it was just a lot on me and I would always be the one trying to coordinate everything. If you have ever had to do this then you can appreciate my frustration. The one thing my family does every year is invest in professional family photos.

Yep. This mamma got smart and did something that she should have done years ago…

HIRE A PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER

Now, I am not talking about just any photographer. You need to hire a photographer that has experience taking pictures of families. When researching the right photographer you want to hire someone that has experience with finding great locations. Also, a photographer that will help with posing ideas and is great with kids. This year, I decided to hire the same photographer as last year because I really loved her work. Not to mention, I have worked with her in the past to capture pictures for the blog. The great thing about working with her was that we had all of our edited photos within 48 hours!

Perfect timing for our family Christmas cards!

I honestly didn’t think I was going to be able to get my Christmas cards mailed on time. But since her turnaround time was so quick, everyone received their Christmas cards before Christmas! Woo Hoo!

Having family photos captured every year has honestly become our little tradition. It is a tradition that I am so happy that I decided to implement. Looking back on our Christmas pictures from last year, it shows how much our kids have grown. More importantly, it is a reminder that time waits for no one. It’s a little bittersweet but it is something that I cherish so very much. If you are looking for a family tradition to start with your family, this one is perfect!

What You Should Consider About Being Thankful This Year

There is so much that comes with the holidays. Although it can be the best time of the year for some, for others it may have its challenges. Not every family gets along with each other. More importantly, not everyone really wants to spend time with people that others “think” they should be happy to be around.

Often times, we experience different challenges throughout the year that lead us to grow distant from our loved ones. With that being said, some can paint a picture of a “perfect” life and family but in reality, it’s not the case. So many people struggle with this.

I am one of them.

Relationships are what WEmake them. We have to put a lot of time and energy into others and sometimes we can feel like it is never reciprocated. But there are a few things that I have learned and I wanted to share with you if you are in the same boat with me.

Before I get into that, please know that I am incredibly grateful to experience the true definition of love with my children. I never saw myself as the “mother” type. Honestly, I guess I didn’t feel like I would be a great mother. God had other plans for me. Plans that changed my life forever. He has shown me what true love really is and I have the opportunity to wake up every day and look love in the face.

Through my children.

I recognize and understand how blessed I really am. Even when things get stressful God always sends me a sign that he is still with me and that he will never leave nor forsake me. Most times…it comes in the form of a simple kiss from M or a random hug from C. Through them, I know how much I am loved and appreciated.

Holidays can be difficult but I want to share these 4 Things to Consider About Being Thankful:

1. Be thankful for the blessings.

2. Being thankful should also include giving thanks during the challenges life brings

3. Being thankful is a choice

4. Be thankful for the things that God will do in the future.

Even if the holidays are not your “thing” there is still a lot to be thankful for. Remember that. I hope you enjoy the time you have with your families this Thanksgiving Holiday.

Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party

I received complimentary tickets to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party in exchange for my review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Just like that, Christmas is right around the corner. I am one of those people who typically wait until after Thanksgiving to put up my Christmas tree and hang all of my Christmas decorations.

After having the opportunity to attend Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, I think I want my Christmas tree up now! It is time to break out the Christmas music and movies! However, this was the very first time my kids, C who is 7 and M who is 4 experiencing a Disney park. Seeing the two of them light up with so much joy and excitement made my soul happy. I was reminded that through there eyes this world can be an exciting and magical place.

It also reminded me of the very first time that my parents brought me and my sister to Disney so, so many moons ago.

Arrival

I found out that we would have the opportunity to take the kids to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas party. We told them that if they did well in school that we would take them somewhere fun and that they would have an amazing time! I can’t believe we kept it a secret all week long. Once we made it on the grounds of Magic Kingdom the kids were so confused. They started shouting we are at Magic Kingdom?! What are we doing here?! The excitement ringing through their voices was pure bliss.

Once we parked the car, I told C to pay attention to the number on the ground. I explained to him we needed to remember the number so we could locate our car when it is time to leave. One thing we forgot to mention was…remember which character lot you parked in. For us, it was Villians. If it wasn’t for C lets just say we would have been lost. He remembers exactly where we parked and made sure we all made it safely back to the car. We were so incredibly proud of him.

As first timers to the park, there was a lot that we had to take in. For starters, once we checked in at the ticket booth and received our complimentary passes, we boarded the ferry boat to take us to the park. Once inside the gates, it felt like we had just stepped into another world! It was Christmas decor everywhere you turned. It was so beautiful!

After strolling along and taking in the scene and of course taking a few pictures we wandered down to Adventureland. We had a chance to check out the Pirates of the Carribean ride and M actually didn’t jump ship! I was like…she is NOT going for this! Then afterward we headed to check out

A Frozen Holiday Wish

Ok, this is where Queen Elsa transformed Cinderella’s Castle into a glittering ice palace! M was so excited for this part. Just watching the castle light up was breathtaking! Then we were able to experience up close and personal Mickey’s Most Merriest Celebration, where you actually felt the holiday magic come alive in the live and vibrant stage show that filled the air with music, dancing, and shimmering snowflakes. Now if that wasn’t enough there was still more to see and experience!

We strolled down Maint Street where the kids had the chance to see and play with “snow” and they actually attempted to eat/taste the snow! After strolling into a few stores we found a nice comfy spot to set up for the

Mickey’s Once Upon A Time Christmastime Parade

You can check footage from our visit here! There are no words to describe the feeling of seeing your babies so excited and mesmerized. To wrap up the night we stayed and experienced

Holiday Wishes: Celebrate the Spirit of the Season fireworks!

Talk about a jammed packed evening! The kids were so exhausted they didn’t make it 5 minutes after we hit the road to come back home! However, they work up bright and early, grabbed their new bubble wands that we purchased at the If you are considering attending I would highly recommend going. There is something purely magical about it. Of course, if you have any questions, just comment below and I will e more than happy to answer them for you!

I Have To Attend This Event Every Year

For as long as I can remember attending this event was always so much fun. Although times have changed and I am now much older it still holds a special place in my heart. Every time I return home during the month of October, it is always centered around The Mississippi State Fair and my sister’s birthday. I guess you can say it is now more like a family tradition.

I grew up in a very small town in Mississippi. With a population now of a little over 1,000 people, Terry, MS is home. It’s the one place where time stands still. Seriously. When I was visiting recently I noticed how different Terry is in comparison to all the other places that I have lived. No one is in a hurry. People will stop and carry on conversations with you. (even if you have no clue as to who they are) What was most surprising was when we had to make a stop at the grocery store and no onehad their cell phones in hand. I was like (insert big eyes) Is that even normal?

But it is…

This is the country and there are more important things to do and enjoy and it doesn’t involve a cell phone tower. While I was at home, my sister De’Ana was in town. We were waiting for our youngest sister Jaz to arrive from Atlanta so that we could go to the one place that brings out our inner child.

The Mississippi State Fair

Ahh…the memories. There is nothing like The Mississippi State Fair. Although I had to do a detox upon return back to Florida, it was worth it. Now that we are older, it is no longer about the rides. It’s about the quality time spent walking up and down the Midway and the food. I wish you could have seen the “list” of items that my dad wanted us to bring back home!

We had to bring in an extra tote bag just to carry all of the food! Not to mention we walked what felt like 10 miles just to find the cinnamon roll stand. De almost threw in the towel. After over 30 minutes of searching in the 90-degree weather, we found it! We were some happy campers.

This post was created in partnership with Mazda. All opinions are my own.

3 Important Reasons Why Married Couples Love Las Vegas

Everyone needs and deserves a vacation! I don’t care if you’re a mother, father, or child. It doesn’t matter.

Everyone deserves and needs a vacation.

Prior to taking a trip to Las Vegas my husband and I had not been on a solo trio together in almost 5 years. Basically, we allowed life to get too busy and forgot about how important it is to truly spend one on one time together.

So we planned a trip.

The last trip I remember was a cruise to Cozumel, Mexico A couple of years ago and it was really good. And then we just haven’t done anything together for the past couple of years. So this trip was a little it was one that we really needed both as a couple and individually.

Our trip was last minute. However, we knew that the kids were going to spend some time with the grandparents. Knowing this, we wanted to work it out just as efficiently as we could. If they’re going for about a week, we wanted to make sure that we had a trip worked into the plans as well.

We drove up to New Orleans and dropped the kids off at the grandparents and we made our way back to Florida. After a few days of work and dropping the family dog off at the kennel we hopped on our flight to Las Vegas. (insert praise hands)

It was kind of weird because we haven’t taken a trip together in so long we were acting like kids in a candy store. Did I mention that we had an entire week planned without our kiddos? (insert praise hands again)

What do we do with ourselves? We don’t have any kids. This is really weird. But it was really, really good for us and that’s why that I want to write this post.

Fremont Street, Las Vegas

Number 1: Quality Time

I would have to say the number one reason you would love Las Vegas is that you and your partner would have the chance to reconnect. It is a great opportunity to talk about things, and have the opportunity to enjoy some “first” experiences together. Although I travel a lot to different conferences, I rarely get the chance to take trips with my husband outside of the trips we take as a family.

Quality time is a really big deal. One thing that I want to make sure to do was to unplug. I didn’t bring my computer or my laptop. I made a point to ensure that this trip was going to be strictly a vacation. No blogging, no YouTube, and barely any Instagram. I know that being on my iPhone is a big deal to him and he thinks I’m on it all the time 24/7 (which is totally not true) but it is the perception of me being on my phone all the time. So I made sure that I left my computer behind and I only used my phone to capture pictures and content that I could share later. Most importantly, he knew that I was present and I wasn’t so concerned with posting all the time.

Honestly, it was quite refreshing not to be so worried about social media and posting, but just living in the moment and enjoying the memories that we were making with each other.

Number 2: Have a Bucket List

Make a list make a bucket list of destinations that the two of you would want to see and experience. This would have to be a key takeaway for me. Because we’ve done trips in the past but it hasn’t been to where I’ve created a “bucket list” of places that I knew what wanted to visit/experience. Granted, didn’t get a chance to visit every single one of them but we checked off the majority of the things on the list. This made it so much easier to make sure that we maximized our time in Las Vegas.

Here are a few things that we had on our “bucket list”

Take a picture at the Welcome to Vegas sign.

Visit the Botanical Gardens at the Bellagio

Watch the Bellagio Fountain Show

Visit Seven Magic Mountains

Just to name a few! I will have a complete list of all of the things we did coming up in a separate post. So stay tuned!

Number #3: It’s not all about gambling!

It’s more about…being able to have adult conversations and talk about our plans for life. We set goals and experienced so much as a couple. It’s all about the experience.

One thing was for sure, it was really, really, HOT! I would suggest not to visit Las Vegas during the months of June, July, August. This, of course, is if you would like to enjoy outdoors during the day. We would suggest the best time to visit would be during the months of October, November, or even September. Trust me! (we asked a local lol)

The Hoover Dam

The Palazzo Hotel

This trip was extremely nice and now I am ready to plan our next getaway! By taking this trip, I really want to travel more. Thank you, Mazda because of your partnership we were able to experience so many different things that we would not have been able to experience. Thank you for sponsoring this post and allowing us to ride around in this brand new CX 9. This vehicle was truly amazing! I really wish I could have brought the 2018 CX-9 back home so the kids could have enjoyed it as well.

Remember to make time for each other but most importantly, travel with each other.

The Hoover Dam

2018 Mazda CX-9

2018 Mazda CX-9

2018 Mazda CX-9

Fremont Street, Las Vegas

*FTC Disclosure* This post may contain affiliate links. Which means if you click on an affiliate link from my blog and make a purchase, it’s possible that I may make a small commission from that sale. I sincerely appreciate your support of the sponsors that help make this blog possible! I only partner with brands that are consistent with my blog’s brand.

Mother’s Day 2018

I have no fancy post planned. Nothing about his post will be in partnership with anyone or sponsored by a brand. Nope. This post will be all about me sharing my thoughts on why Mother’s Day will be different this year. Well, at least for me.

Mother’s Day

It is always bittersweet. I am so incredibly blessed with two amazing children. Sometimes I am blown away by their love and intelligence. They always seem to know when mommy needs a hug just as a pick me up. The best part about it, I never have to speak a word. Never have to explain why I am sad, down, or downright frustrated, they just know.

Mother’s have a DAMN hard job. I don’t care about what anyone has to say or their opinion on that statement. We have to juggle so much, for example, every tuition payment, the doses of medication every time one of them gets sick, and having to play the role of the single parent when the partner is out of town on business.

Mother’s Day will be different for me this year because of these 3 reasons. It may not seem like a BIG deal, but it is to me.

I will not have the luxury of seeing my mom, and to give her a hug and a kiss. With her living in Mississippi, we don’t get to spend time together as often as I would like. I miss her so much, these words can’t even explain.

No Mommy & Me Pictures. Last year I booked a photo shoot with just me and my kids. You can check out the post – Happy Mother’s Day! Being that I was solo with the kids due to the fact of my husband and his new job, he was in Florida and we were still in Louisiana. This year we didn’t take any pictures, this year there are fewer pictures with just me and my kids. of course, we take the occasional selfie, but if it weren’t for that, well… you already know.

Plan Free. There are absolutely no plans this year. Nowhere to be, nowhere to go, I guess this could be a very good thing right? The only plan I have to hold my children a little longer, to snuggle them with all the love and affection their little bodies can stand.

They will KNOW how much their mommy loves them. Because without them, I wouldn’t be celebrating Mother’s Day. Although, I’m the one that is truly blessed to be entrusted with these precious gifts that changed my world for the better.

I hope you take the time to soak up your children. Take as many photos with them as you can and cherish every moment of every day, even if they call for “mommy” a gazillion times! Because soon, they will be on their own, writing their story in this book we call…LIFE.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Photo Credit: Sydney Marie Photography

Why Mother’s Day Will Be Different This Year was last modified: May 10th, 2018 by Tiffany

Happy Mother’s Day!

If you would have asked me 10 years ago if I ever wanted to have children, my answer would have been, HECK NO! I still can’t believe that I am a mother of two special little human beings. Funny thing, I don’t even remember what life was like before them. Well, ok, maybe I do miss a few things, but not bad enough to go back.

Before making the decision to take these photos, I read an article about how mom often times take more selfies with their kids because they are the ones always behind the lens capturing moments. Most of the time we are never in the photo, so I made a choice to start taking more photos with my blessings so that when they grow up and look back in the photo book they will know that mommy was just as important in their lives as everyone else.

I have looked at these photos at least one hundred times and they bring tears to my eyes. My babies are growing up and they are growing up FAST! It really breaks my heart, I don’t even remember when this “growing up” happened. I mean, was I even present? Of course, I was but how did I miss it?!

I love these children more than life itself and I am so blessed to have been given the opportunity to raise them. I still can’t believe that God entrusted me with them, but he knows best so I must have passed the test! lol! To all of my fellow mommies, you are such a blessing to your little ones. Love them unconditionally, never let a day pass without letting them know how much you love and care for them. Our time with them is short, so make the most out of the days you have with them.

I wake up to several text messages and phone calls. Something is wrong, my heart drops. As I unlock my phone, I see that my mom and dad were desperately trying to notify me of something. My uncle had just passed away. While my eyes began to focus on the words in the message my heart became extremely heavy.

My uncle, who is my dad’s brother, left the world this morning around 2:00 a.m. I was told that he had passed away in his sleep. My thoughts were instantly focused on my aunt and what she may have been feeling. I could only imagine it was that feeling of disbelief, shock, and extreme sadness. I wondered how she came to the conclusion that her husband, the father of her children, the man that she had build her life and legacy with, was now gone. I can’t begin to wrap my mind around those feelings that she must have had in that very moment.

I have memories of my uncle but they are few and vague. The memories I have of him are not bad by any means, we were just severely disconnected. I never had the opportunity to build a relationship or to make any new memories with him. I am sure you are wondering why? Why were we not as close as we should have been? Well, the short version of that story is…PRIDE. It is a domino effect, my dad has been on is own since he was young. Over the years he became very distant with his brothers and sisters. The domino effect that I speak of is that, I was distant because my dad was distant. My sisters and I only have a few memories of being in our aunt’s and uncles presence or anyone else from that side of the family.

As these thoughts begin to sink in I tell myself…Damn. Damn, I didn’t get a chance to make it right. I didn’t get a chance to take my kids by his house so they could know who their uncle was. He and the rest of my dad’s brothers and sisters have never met my kids. As I sit here writing this post, I ask myself why? What makes me different than them, or better yet what makes me the same. I never tried to reach out, I never called, I never sent a card, and I never attempted to re-connect with them.

I am no different; I have allowed the opinion and feelings of my dad get in the way of me building my own relationship with my dad’s side of the family. Thing is, they have never wronged me personally but they hurt my dad. The way that we are in this family is that if they hurt him then they hurt me (us). That hurt I took on as my own and took the words from one side of the story and believed it.

As I try to get through this day with such a heavy heart, I pray that moving forward I will begin to build the relationships that were broken so many years ago. It is time for the younger generation to step up and mend the relationships that our parents struggle with. We have to be the ones to show them how it SHOULD be. At the end of the day we are FAMILY.

Unfortunately, we do not get to choose who is a part of this family but we are to LOVE them even if we don’t agree with their actions or behavior. That is our job. I pray for the past to be accepted and the future to be re-built. This is my prayer for myself, my family and my children.